Back to main page
Henry VI, Part 1 - Act 2, scene 1
Cite
Download Henry VI, Part 1
Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
- PDF Download as PDF
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers
- HTML Download as HTML
- TXT Download as TXT
- XML Download as XML
- TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis) Download as TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis)
Navigate this work
Henry VI, Part 1 - Act 2, scene 1Act 2, scene 1
Scene 1
Synopsis:
The English forces, led by Bedford, Burgundy, and Talbot, scale the walls of Orleance and drive out the French, who quarrel over who is responsible for this defeat.
Enter ⌜on the walls⌝ a ⌜French⌝ Sergeant of a Band,with two Sentinels.
SERGEANT
0607 Sirs, take your places and be vigilant.
0608 If any noise or soldier you perceive
0609 Near to the walls, by some apparent sign
0610 Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.
SENTINEL
0611 5 Sergeant, you shall.⌜Sergeant exits.⌝
0612 Thus are poor servitors,
0613 When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
0614 Constrained to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.
Enter Talbot, Bedford, and Burgundy, ⌜below,⌝
with scaling ladders.
TALBOT
0615 Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy,
0616 10 By whose approach the regions of Artois,
0617 Walloon, and Picardy are friends to us,
0618 This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
0619 Having all day caroused and banqueted.
0620 Embrace we then this opportunity,
0621 15 As fitting best to quittance their deceit
0622 Contrived by art and baleful sorcery.
BEDFORD
0623 Coward of France, how much he wrongs his fame,
0624 Despairing of his own arm’s fortitude,
0625 To join with witches and the help of hell!
p.
59
BURGUNDY 0626 20 Traitors have never other company.
0627 But what’s that Pucelle whom they term so pure?
TALBOT
0628 A maid, they say.
BEDFORD 0629 A maid? And be so martial?
BURGUNDY
0630 Pray God she prove not masculine ere long,
0631 25 If underneath the standard of the French
0632 She carry armor as she hath begun.
TALBOT
0633 Well, let them practice and converse with spirits.
0634 God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
0635 Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
BEDFORD
0636 30 Ascend, brave Talbot. We will follow thee.
TALBOT
0637 Not all together. Better far, I guess,
0638 That we do make our entrance several ways,
0639 That if it chance the one of us do fail,
0640 The other yet may rise against their force.
BEDFORD
0641 35 Agreed. I’ll to yond corner.
BURGUNDY 0642 And I to this.
TALBOT
0643 And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave.
0644 Now, Salisbury, for thee and for the right
0645 Of English Henry, shall this night appear
0646 40 How much in duty I am bound to both.
⌜Scaling the walls, they⌝ cry
“Saint George! À Talbot!”
SENTINEL
0647 Arm, arm! The enemy doth make assault.
⌜The English, pursuing the Sentinels, exit aloft.⌝
The French leap o’er the walls in their shirts.
p.
61
Enter several ways, Bastard, Alanson, Reignier,half ready, and half unready.
ALANSON
0648 How now, my lords? What, all unready so?
BASTARD
0649 Unready? Ay, and glad we scaped so well.
REIGNIER
0650 ’Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,
0651 45 Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.
ALANSON
0652 Of all exploits since first I followed arms
0653 Ne’er heard I of a warlike enterprise
0654 More venturous or desperate than this.
BASTARD
0655 I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
REIGNIER
0656 50 If not of hell, the heavens sure favor him.
ALANSON
0657 Here cometh Charles. I marvel how he sped.
Enter Charles and Joan ⌜la Pucelle.⌝
BASTARD
0658 Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.
CHARLES
0659 Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?
0660 Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
0661 55 Make us partakers of a little gain
0662 That now our loss might be ten times so much?
PUCELLE
0663 Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?
0664 At all times will you have my power alike?
0665 Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail,
0666 60 Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?—
0667 Improvident soldiers, had your watch been good,
0668 This sudden mischief never could have fall’n.
p.
63
CHARLES 0669 Duke of Alanson, this was your default,
0670 That, being captain of the watch tonight,
0671 65 Did look no better to that weighty charge.
ALANSON
0672 Had all your quarters been as safely kept
0673 As that whereof I had the government,
0674 We had not been thus shamefully surprised.
BASTARD
0675 Mine was secure.
REIGNIER 0676 70 And so was mine, my lord.
CHARLES
0677 And for myself, most part of all this night
0678 Within her quarter and mine own precinct
0679 I was employed in passing to and fro
0680 About relieving of the sentinels.
0681 75 Then how or which way should they first break in?
PUCELLE
0682 Question, my lords, no further of the case,
0683 How or which way; ’tis sure they found some place
0684 But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
0685 And now there rests no other shift but this:
0686 80 To gather our soldiers, scattered and dispersed,
0687 And lay new platforms to endamage them.
Alarum. Enter ⌜an English⌝ Soldier, crying,
“À Talbot, À Talbot!” ⌜The French⌝ fly,
leaving their clothes behind.
SOLDIER
0688 I’ll be so bold to take what they have left.
0689 The cry of “Talbot” serves me for a sword,
0690 For I have loaden me with many spoils,
0691 85 Using no other weapon but his name.
He exits.